The State of Human Trafficking in Asia Pacific

By Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS)
Singapore

The official release of the annual Trafficking In Persons (or TIP, see box 1) Report by the US State Department in June this year has once again resulted in the issue making the news. While the majority of the coverage has been reactions to and questions around the index where countries are ranked from Tier 1 to Tier 3 (see box 2), there are some notable developments and trends, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. Highlights from the Report Based on the report, from a global perspective, 2015 was a good year in the world’s collective fight against human trafficking. On average there were more prosecutions, convictions, and identification of victims than any single year in the past. There was also an improvement in the number of new and amended legislation with regard to trafficking in persons.